A Story of Sachakans and Kyralians
by lieutenant Alia
Summary: Set in the years after the events of The Black Magician Trilogy
1. Chapter 1

The rock that Laurena lay against began to warm gradually as the sun crested the horizon. Dawn. Dawn in the wastes. Dawn in Sachaka. This was a sight not many Kyralians had the pleasure of viewing from Laurena's mountain top perch. In fact, it would probably have disconcerted many Kyralians to know that their pleasure of the dawn was only second hand to that of the Sachakans', considering their relative geographical positions. As that light, red, pink and gold in hue, slowly crept across the dry soil and dust of the lower reaches of the waste, Laurena admired the furrows and runnels that became exposed, their twists and turns that were both revealed and shadowed by the rising sun. They could have been running streams, racing each other to the horizon, or well worn trade paths just itching for the first caravan of Gorin to amble past, loaded with who knew what. But Laurena knew that nothing so alive, so fruitful, often travelled through the wastes. It was a harsh and unforgiving place. To her left and right she could see how the mountain range travelled on into the distance, a series of sharp peaks and flat plateaus, a sentinel row of guards; Kyralians facing off against the Sachakan threat, Sachakans defending themselves against their Kyralian foe.

Yet, Laurena found an odd beauty in the spectacle. Perhaps, she mused, her grasp on history was a little romanticised. She saw honour and glory only where there had been bloodshed and conquest. Wars fought in and for this land turned dust to gold, weeds to garlands, the mountains themselves to fortresses of steel.

Laurena smiled to herself. The _Steelbelt Ranges_ had been quite aptly named.

Regardless, Laurena's love for this land ensured that in her heart she would always treasure Sachaka, and even the wastes, as her home.

She only hoped her sister would remember the same. Would remember where her home truly lay. Today, Nalia travelled through those very mountains Laurena had been admiring. South towards Kyralia. Imardin. The Magicians' Guild.


	2. Chapter 2

Sonea glanced through her daughter's bedroom door, surveying the meagre possessions Nalia had thrown across the bed. Sonea felt a pang as she noticed, once more, the worn clothes, repaired again and again as her daughter had grown, and the very few personal items. There was no silver hairbrush here, no library of books and no token ornaments cherished.

Sonea smiled wryly. There had been one time, long ago, where even Nalia's small collection of items would have appeared an extravagance. But that had been a childhood Sonea had almost forgotten now. She had seen and lived a different life once, one more luxurious, tailored to meet the every need and demand of a young magician setting out on a magical adventure.

Sonea felt another pang. That had also been another life. When she thought about what she and Akkarin had missed out on, on what, more importantly, her children had missed out on, Sonea couldn't help but feel that something was lacking. That was why she and Akkarin had fought so hard to have Nalia accepted by the Guild. They had already paid the price twice over of raising children in Sachaka.

 _Lorkin and Laurena…_

Sonea pushed that voice, and the guilt, to the back of her mind.

The Guild owed them a debt. In the aftermath of the invasion, she and Akkarin had left just as the King had asked. Akkarin had barely recovered from his injury and Sonea, by that stage, heavily pregnant…yes, the Guild owed them a debt.

'Mother, you're lurking in the door again. If you're going to stand and stare, how about giving me a hand with these things.'

Sonea crossed her arms and feigned offence.

'I am your mother, I'm allowed to lurk.'

'Yes? Well then lurk and help me decide whether I should bring this extra pair of trousers or not. I don't want to pack too much.'

Sonea laughed.

Nalia's face creased slightly, 'Well, I don't. I have to carry this pack the whole way to the border…'

The rest of her sentence tailed off.

Sonea raised an eyebrow, wondering at her daughter's silence.

'And…'

Nalia sighed. 'I don't want _them_ thinking that we're, you know,' she gestured around the room, 'living too greatly or anything. I don't want them…'

'To resent you?'

As Nalia nodded, Sonea felt another pang. She was going to have to take something for her heart if this continued. Looking at her daughter, her beautiful little girl who just wasn't so little anymore, standing at the foot of the bed, Sonea could only imagine how she was feeling. Nalia was teetering on the cusp of something great. Yet, Sonea could sympathise, Nalia would never know how much, with how she was feeling in that moment. To stare at a great opportunity and know that it would come at a great price was a feeling that had embedded itself in Sonea's heart, a memory she knew she would never fail to remember. Magic for magicians came with a very heavy price.

Overcome by a mixture of emotions, Sonea hurriedly drew her daughter against her. She knew it would embarrass the young woman but she didn't care. There would be a time in the not so distant future where she wouldn't have the luxury of such an action and she was determined that before her daughter crossed the border into Kyralia she would know that here, in Sachaka, she would always have a family that loved her. Despite everything that the Guild may throw at her.

'I am sorry, Nalia. I am so sorry that you have to go through this alone.'

A murmur against her chest was her only response.

'I won't lie to you and tell you that it's going to be easy. Your father and I left few friends at the Guild when we left the last time-'

They had, in fact, left none.

'But you will have to be brave-'

A lesson learnt at a great price.

'And know that this opportunity-'

To use magic away from this place, away from black magic, away from the never ending compromises.

'Will outweigh anything that the Guild throws at you.'

More likely, what it's bigoted inhabitants will throw at you.

Nalia pushed her mother away slightly. Her face was pale, but she was trying to be brave. Sonea could see it in the set of her lips, pressed firmly in a line, as if she refused to let the words she no doubt wanted to say pour out. Sonea could imagine what she had to say. She ran her hand lightly over Nalia's forehead, as she used to do when she was a much younger child. Odd that, in this moment, that half forgotten motion would come to her. Perhaps she was being nostalgic. But this was the first of her children to leave her. Sonea had to suppress another pang.

'Nalia-'

Her daughter's eyes brightened.

'You can do this.'

A sigh escaped her daughter. Sonea smiled.

'You are my daughter. You are your father's daughter.'

Nalia frowned slightly.

'But you are also the intelligent, adventurous little girl-well, now you're a young woman- that I had the privilege to raise.'

'Oh mother, don't-'

Sonea laughed. 'I'm embarrassing you, yes, but I have to say it. Have courage, and be yourself. The Guild for all its flaws-'

She suppressed the ever present bitterness.

'Will become your new home. It's a new adventure. I'm proud of you.'

Nalia suddenly laughed. The noise broke the sombre mood and brought a happier smile to Sonea's face.

'Mother, this isn't like you.'

'You think I'm bad, just wait until your father gets to you. Now,' Sonea said, turning back to the bed, 'I think you should pack the trousers. You never know when you may need them.'

The image of a fountain spraying her with water flashed briefly through her mind.

'Oh, and before I forget, I have something else for you to take with you...'


	3. Chapter 3

'I was wondering where you had disappeared off to'.

Laurena jumped as the familiar voice broke through her reflections. She leapt to her feet and spun round. Her father stood with his arms folded in the shadow of a rock. His eyes glittered as he regarded her. Laurena tried to quell a pang of nervousness. She had expected her mother to come after her that morning. It wouldn't be long now until Nalia left for the Guild. A part of Laurena had wanted to see her sister off. She couldn't begrudge her the opportunity that had fallen so fruitfully into her lap. But it stung. A little. Laurena's mother and father had gone to the Guild once. Now Nalia was going. Somehow or other Laurena had been over looked.

 _Well, Lorkin and I have been overlooked._

But Lorkin didn't seem as bothered by the whole thing as Laurena was.

Now, watching as her father unfolded his arms and made his way towards her, Laurena worried at the consequences of her rudeness. Her parents would construe it as selfishness, she was sure. How could she explain the struggle that was perpetually at play within her. This land, this place that had been the place of her birth, _Sachaka,_ was her home. Yet, within their family the Guild was a shadowy spectre, an initiation of sorts. It had marked her parents' departure from Kyralia, it had marked their sacrifice before that, it had been their home to begin with. While living in Sachaka, or should she say _surviving_ in Sachaka, Laurena had noticed that her parents' eyes ceaselessly were cast back towards the mountains, towards Kyralia and towards the Guild. Unable to understand such loyalty, Laurena noted and wondered at the difference that could exist outside of her own volition, between her parents and their children. Nalia's departure for the institute now, however, brought her one step closer to them. Laurena tried to ignore the resentment that quietly simmered.

Akkarin cast around slightly for somewhere to sit, and eventually decided to place his back against the rock that, moments before, Laurena had been sitting against. He looked up at her, his eyebrow raised.

Laurena sighed and threw herself down beside him. Akkarin yawned, and stretched his arms above his head. Resting his head against the rock, he leant slightly towards Laurena, but kept his eyes on the horizon where the sun had finally covered the land in a deep golden light.

'Nalia is leaving soon, Laurena.'

Laurena winced. 'I know.'

'And you have decided not to see your sister off then?'

The disapproval was heavy in his voice. Laurena defended herself the only way she could, knowing it was a mistake from the first.

'It's not like that.' She snapped.

Angry defensiveness was never a good practice, Laurena knew. Not with her father. Or her mother. They lived in a world where childishness was unforgivably wasteful. And trivial.

Laurena got a peevish satisfaction out of seeing her father's lips tighten slightly. He turned to regard her fully.

'Then explain to me how it is.'

Laurena gulped as she saw her father's eyes glitter dangerously. She couldn't look at him. Not when he was like that.

'It's nothing.'

How could she explain it to him? How could she tell him what Nalia's journey to the Guild meant. And what it confirmed about her own suspicions. About her parents. About their life in Sachaka. That it wasn't real. That it wasn't wanted. That everything had been a lie. That her parents had always been striving for something greater. Something more. And that Laurena was being left out of that. That, to her, it was akin to being cast out of an exclusive group. Her family, to be exact. A part of her knew that she was being foolish, but another saw the message beneath her everyday reality. Nalia's move to the Guild, her enactment of her parents' dreams undermined the value of the life Laurena had always loved and relied upon to feel secure.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her tightly. Immediately tears came to Laurena's eyes. The relief she got from her father's embrace was palpable. It was a reassurance she needed in that moment. As Akkarin held her Laurena rested her head in the crook of his arm and cried.

Gently smoothing her hair, Akkarin murmured, 'Lauri. Lauri. Lauri. What are we going to do with you?'

Laurena couldn't answer.

'Look at me.'

Laurena shook her head.

'Come on, Laurena. I need to see you. I need to speak to you.'

Reluctantly, Laurena turned, trying furiously to wipe the tears from her eyes. Akkarin laughed gently. He reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek.

'You don't have to hide those tears from me, Laurena. I'm your father. Now, tell me this time, what is this all about.'

Laurena looked up into her father's face. He could often be quite harsh. Both he and her mother had suffered a lot in their exile, their _second_ exile, in Sachaka. It had made them hard. Their moments of softness brief. But now her father was all compassion. She could see the softness in his eyes, the sharp pain that characterised the set of his lips. She had lived with them a long time, her parents. She knew them both. She loved them both. Fresh tears came to her eyes.

'Laurena, you are killing me.'

They weren't unreasonable, her parents either.

'I don't want Nalia to go to the Guild.'

Her father's eyes tightened, the creases in the corners deepening ever so slightly. He sighed, and glanced away briefly.

'Laurena, you know we can't change what is going to happen. This is a great opportunity for your sister. Would you really want us to ask her to give it all up?'

'Yes.'

He looked at her sharply. 'Laurena-'

'She's not going to come back. You know she won't. She-'

 _Can't._

'I know.'

'Then why-'

'Laurena-' he interrupted, 'look around you. What is there here for you all? There is only us. There is only us and this wasteland. Wandering around eternally, punishing ourselves for making the _right_ decisions.'

He gently placed his hands on the sides of her face and looked earnestly into her eyes. 'My children do not deserve to be punished because of the decisions I have made. That we made.'

'It's not that bad,' she said softly.

'It's all you've ever known, Laurena.'

There is was again, that spectre. The shadow. The Guild.

Anger, burning and hot, raged suddenly through Luarena. She pulled her face away and stumbled to her feet. She stepped away from him, angrily casting about. At the sky, At the rocks. At the land. At home. A home which had been beaten and ruined by her family's expectations. By their desires. Ruined. Everything was ruined.

'Maybe it is all I've ever known, but does that make it any less, father.'

Her voice echoed against the rock walls. Her father's eyes widened in warning. They could never know if they were alone in the mountains. There was always the threat of Ichani. Of someone over hearing, and finding them. Laurena didn't care. Not in that moment. What did it matter if their lives were shattered? Her father was making a good enough job of doing that himself.

'You and mother, all you talk about is the Guild,' that wasn't necessarily true, but the unspoken word was just as loud as that which was spoken. 'What about the rest of us? What about me and Lorkin?' Again, Lorkin's place in this was questionable at best. She wished she had her brother's obliviousness at times. She watched as her father slowly climbed to his feet, steadying himself against the rock wall. He regarded her silently. His face closed.

'What about us? Your Sachakan children.' They had all been born in Sachaka. But she and Lorkin had been the first. Before they were married. Inspiration struck. She wanted to wound him. To hurt him just as he was hurting her. 'Your Sachakan bastards.'

Akkarin's head snapped up. The anger was evident as his jaw tightened. Eyes, eyes, glittering eyes. Anger. Sorrow. What did it matter to Laurena in that moment. Carried away in the heat of her hurt and upset. She saw the whole future before her in a flash. Nalia going to the Guild. Becoming a great magician. Her father and mother, their connection to the Guild restored. Turning their backs to the waste and facing forever towards the mountains. Turning their backs to her. Casting her out. She could never go to the Guild. Never join that exclusive group. It was enough to make her want to scream. In fact, she did.

As her father stepped towards her Laurena stepped back. She couldn't really see anymore. Her anger blinded her. Her tears stung. She gathered her power to her. In defiance of everything her parents had warned her about. About not wasting magic. About using magic only when she was in danger. About the importance of being able to protect herself. All those warnings and careful lessons were cast aside. As her father moved towards her, Laurena created a disc beneath her feet. Her father's eyes widened as he noticed the dust shifting at her feet. He moved quickly. Laurena was quicker. Before Akkarin could react Laurena had levitated over the side of the overhang and was gone.


End file.
